


What's in a Reflection?

by Earl_of_Bats



Category: Persona 5
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27493969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Earl_of_Bats/pseuds/Earl_of_Bats
Summary: Ren runs into Sae's cognitive Goro while making his escape from the Interrorgation room.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 3
Kudos: 71





	What's in a Reflection?

**Author's Note:**

> Very Loosely based of a prompt I was inspired by on Tumblr. Sorry for the Angst!

To say Ren was surprised by the version of Goro Sae had managed to cook up in the fading remnants of that twisted gnarled mind space that corrupted her worldview was something of a misnomer. It definitely wasn't what he expected. 

The remains of her palace or- now that he thought of it maybe these weren't remnants at all… maybe this was actually here. Pocketed away in a tight little corner of cognition. The mind she had before the weight of responsibility had warped her.  
Her own little private mind palace. Maybe everyone had this in them- he'd have to explore that possibility later. For right now he was in the process of escaping, or rather he was before he came face to face with the very man who was likely watching the blood drip from a bullet wound in his cognitive doubles head at this very moment. 

He knew that this was just Saes cognition of Goro and He would have probably run by and paid it no mind if it hadn't looked so… sad- No not sad, forlorn, weathered, looking out into the endless world framed by a police office window with a stare that saw far beyond the endlessness and into something else entirely. 

"Goro?" He didn't know why he spoke, he hated him, why did he care? Why was his voice crackling under something so thick as… as… 

"Oh! Hello… uhmm Kurusu-kun yes?" The double smiled his detective vaneer up and polite and sickeningly sweet. 

Wait why didn't he- Akira looked down noticing he wasn't Joker at all, but himself, bruises and all… that made sense he wasn't a threat in Saes mind and she no longer was distorted. 

"Y-yes, I-" there was something about the barely there recognition in the doubles eyes that made him squirm. Goro knew him so why didn't this Goro...Know him? More than that he was confused by why it was that the idea of Goro not knowing or seeing him made him so viscerally uncomfortable. 

Goros scruched his brow, puzzled gaze darting about as though thinking over things before his eyes lit up and a creeping blush came across his face.  
"Oh! I'm, I'm sorry…this is all very new to me. Sae still seems to be processing everything she knows about me… putting things together." Goro apologized, recognition settling into his posture. 

"How-" cognitions shouldn't know that they weren't the original. 

"I figure it's because she couldn't imagine me not being aware of something like my own existence…" Goro answered. There was a pause as something seemed to cause the doubles attention to drift, his gaze slowly turning to look down at his shoes- hair falling into his face obstructing his eyes. 

Goro pushed the shoe forward pointing it out in front of himself, angling it up to the light. "I used to be able to see my own reflection in my loafers, they were so pure." Goro muttered lowly as if speaking to himself. 

"I dont-" he didn't understand what it was this Goro was saying. 

"Haha oh don't, don't worry about it. It's not… it's not important." The double let out a long exhausted sigh. His smile cracking at it's edges.  
They sat in a strange awkward pause for a second the back of Ren's neck itched. 

"Would you like some coffee? I know a great little place with a very cute barista- ah wait that's you...I apologise again I'm not exactly myself quite yet." Goro chuckled a laugh Ren had never heard before, it was sharp and sly, almost playful. 

Is this how Goro laughed around Sae?

"I'm still working on becoming that. Piecing everything into neat little boxes." Goro punctuated with his Index finger in a way that Goro would never have done in front of him in real life.

Goro looked at Ren expectantly, his head jutting slightly out to the side as he bent to look up at him, his back pushed forward to lower his body. He had only ever seen Goro make this sort of pose in selfies he posted online. It was- god it was cute. No, not cute, Disarming an act a ploy to-. 

"Coffee?" Goro batted his eyes and pulled his teeth over the corner of his lips… was he? Was he flirting with him? The thought sent him reeling a bit. 

"Ah yes." Ren stumbled out reflexively. He winced internally as he realized how absolutely horrid of an idea it was to spend his precious escape time galavanting around metaspace with the duplicate of his would be murderer. But before he could change his answer Goro beamed up at him with a wide self satisfied smile- Puffed up and proud like he had just won a carnival prize as he walked out the door in front of him. 

It was strange- stranger still that he even noticed it in the first place, but Goro never walked out in front of him. He had always let Ren go first. Always behind him at his back, waiting to strike while his guard was down, he guessed. Why did these minuet differences, in what he thought he knew as absolute facts about Goro, bother him so much?

They walked out of the presinct and into the streets Ren followed somewhat awkwardly as Goro set his own pace. Walking with a self absorbed confidence that seemed at odds with the usual humbled meandering pace he had when he was around him in the real world. 

They came up to some expensive looking french cafe Akira had never seen before. The faces of the cognitive strangers, who if you looked at closely enough didn't seem to have discernable faces, piling into the comfortable space of the cafe- they weren't shadows… more like phantoms, little bits of memory pieced together to form the facsimile of a human being. 

Goro sat down into a plush little booth near the middle of the store seated so he was the one who got to look out into the crowd of people in and outside of the cafe.  
"Get me a Coffee, black...mmmm Blue mountain if they have it. Thank you~" Goro flashed him a wide, somewhat mischievous smile, as he waited for Ren to go order for him. 

His hand shook as he stood in line, the faceless, nameless barista sighing as he mentioned having no money before noticing Goro and mumbling something about 'well if it's for the prince then I don't see why not'. 

He brought the coffee and placed it down in front of Goro who's expression lit up with an enamoured shine. He took a deep breath and exhaled in elation before taking a blissful sip of his coffee.  
"Nothing better than a piping hot cup of coffee wouldn't you say? Mr. Barista?" He sighed his eyes glimmering with a gentle contented sheen. 

A strange sharp stinging pain lanced Ren's heart- this was wrong, Sae didn't know Goro at all or was it him who, no- Goro liked his coffee with cream and sugar, he liked a mellow blend, his coffee was blonde and he liked it warm. two cubes of sugar he'd stir in idly as he waited for it to cool, looking over case notes or waiting for him to make a move in their games of chess. Never black- and he never… he never looked this happy drinking it. 

It hurt…why did the idea of him not knowing Goro hurt so much? Why did it make him so angry to have some lying, backstabbing, insufferable- 

"Are you okay?" Goro looked up at him from where he sat with a worried look. A look of concern he had never seen before.  
A look of concern he'd never get to see. 

This was wrong and he had to get out of there so he ran, and ran and ran and chased away the lingering thought of Goro's worried brow pinched together into that sickeningly sweet, adoring, caring expression. 

Even harder did he push down the memory of the face he saw reflected in that little black mirror of bitter liquid- His own face twisted in anguish poisoned with Betrayal and something too akin to longing for him to understand it. 

It wasn't until the barrier came down between them- Goros glove clenched tightly in Ren's fist as he pressed his forehead up against the wall promising him that he'd avenge him, right all the wrongs that horrid evil despicable man had done to not just himself but to Goro.  
It was then and only then that he understood the face he had seen in that cup of coffee had been one of heartbreak. 

But it was too late- Too late to understand why the thought of him not knowing or seeing Goro or not being known or seen by him in turn, hurt so much. It was too late because it was only after he had heard the gunshots, Futabas words muffled by the blood pumping so thickly through his veins that he realized he was in love with Goro Akechi. 

Whoever it is, that was.

**Author's Note:**

> I used a weird mix of mementos mission and P5r to kinda build this fic because Akechi and Sae have this amazing set of interactions in Mementos missions that really *chefs kiss* characterizes Goro Akechi.  
> And the shoe conversation is so fucking good I'd sell my kidney to pay for it's college education.  
> Full stop read mementos mission.


End file.
